I've noticed in many of the photo contributions here that many have a common interest as me in audio components

since a good deal of my disposable income goes to, you guessed it bikes, my set ups have only received a status of mid-fi at best

just like the up turned drop bars or mis-aligned inner tube value irks many of us here, one thing I can't stand is listening to compressed digitalized music coming out of phones, players, and bluetooth speakers

So how about showing us your setups and any plans on upgrading or downgrading

Clemsongirl is impressive in all she does here. Nice set up...I'd love to have a tube amp. My audio interests got put on the back burner with kids and space issues. I've always like speakers and that is the part of the system with the most influence over sound quality. I've hung on to my Boston Acoustics, Allison and Bose speakers through the years, driven with just basic Japanese receivers. Sad to say my gazillions of albums are in storage and have no turntable to play on. It's just so quick & easy to find music on the internet.

I have 1700+ LP's in boxes that I haven't even looked at in 20 years. Have two older turntables, one Japanese and one Heathkit my father assembled when I was about 2. Have several amps, pre-amps and some PSB speakers all stored away in the basement. I really ought to drag the stuff out and set it up but have given in to the ease of MP3 players and a Bose Accoustic wave.

I have a pic of my desktop system as my avatar. I burn all my CDs to lossless format and then stream my music.

I'll take some more pics but my desktop system uses a mac mini as a source running a usb cable to a peachtree idecco integrated amp/dac/headphone amp. Speakers are PSB imagine B bookshelf speakers and an energy ESW M8 sub. I mainly use my macbook as a source but I also have a marantz CD6004 CD player that I use as well as an ipod with a digital out to the peachtree idecco:

My 2 channel rig uses an outlaw RR2150 stereo receiver, a cambridge dacmagic plus dac, and a pair of PSB Image T6 towers. I stream the music through the house using either a squeezebox touch (no longer made) or an apple airport express using the digital out to the dacmagic plus.

Plus I've uploaded all my music to google so I can stream it anywhere (like at work where I am now). I use a audioengine D1 dac/headphone amp and emotiva airmotiv 4 monitors at work.

I have 1700+ LP's in boxes that I haven't even looked at in 20 years.(

I bought an inexpensive turntable (aside from the B&O I listen on) w/ ripping software and a USB connection to a laptop.
I've transferred many dozens of LPs to MP3 for archival and portable/casual listening.
Next step is to install a WiFi device on all four amps/receivers in the home and network the sound systems to a single source w/ outdoors and garage included to replace the current wireless set-up.
The 70's LP technology sounds best but I'm cooking, gardening, working on the bikes and generally plootering about to music in the background, CD or MP3 is good enough and it's in every room.

You already have some great equipment and likely with phono inputfs for the turntables. Very easy to get those components to sing again.

Lower wattage integrated tube amps driving efficient speaker don't take up much space. There are also many within reasonable price points.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deal4Fuji

Clemsongirl is impressive in all she does here. Nice set up...I'd love to have a tube amp. My audio interests got put on the back burner with kids and space issues. I've always like speakers and that is the part of the system with the most influence over sound quality. I've hung on to my Boston Acoustics, Allison and Bose speakers through the years, driven with just basic Japanese receivers. Sad to say my gazillions of albums are in storage and have no turntable to play on. It's just so quick & easy to find music on the internet.

I am jealous of your collection, I suggest sorting them out and ensuring there is no humidity damage, many of the bulk records I receive have a musty odor and damage to the records and album art

Only starting getting into LP records and 78rpm lacquers a few years ago, I grew up in the 80's when cassettes started taking over and during a time when we didn't have much extra money. Between bikes and hifi, two things I couldn't afford much then, I'm making up for now.

Drag the old boys out, messing with old electronics and bikes go hand in hand in my book.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdon

Me too..

I have 1700+ LP's in boxes that I haven't even looked at in 20 years. Have two older turntables, one Japanese and one Heathkit my father assembled when I was about 2. Have several amps, pre-amps and some PSB speakers all stored away in the basement. I really ought to drag the stuff out and set it up but have given in to the ease of MP3 players and a Bose Accoustic wave.

very nice bikemig
I few years back I ripped all my CDs to lossless while looking at the best options for a music server, at the time wifi technology was not where it is today and of course no cloud.

In the end, I gave up on the server as I also wanted it for my movies, and technology was not where I could make things work without spending a boat load of dough. Seems like tech has blown past what I needed then, so much to learn....

What software are you using to manage your media? Also do you sell your CDs or movies afterwards? I tend to keep mine, but I know many who rip then sell. There must be a law against that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bikemig

I have a pic of my desktop system as my avatar. I burn all my CDs to lossless format and then stream my music.

I'll take some more pics but my desktop system uses a mac mini as a source running a usb cable to a peachtree idecco integrated amp/dac/headphone amp. Speakers are PSB imagine B bookshelf speakers and an energy ESW M8 sub. I mainly use my macbook as a source but I also have a marantz CD6004 CD player that I use as well as an ipod with a digital out to the peachtree idecco:

My 2 channel rig uses an outlaw RR2150 stereo receiver, a cambridge dacmagic plus dac, and a pair of PSB Image T6 towers. I stream the music through the house using either a squeezebox touch (no longer made) or an apple airport express using the digital out to the dacmagic plus.

Plus I've uploaded all my music to google so I can stream it anywhere (like at work where I am now). I use a audioengine D1 dac/headphone amp and emotiva airmotiv 4 monitors at work.

That's one of those things I haven't done yet, that is to rip records to digital
My turntables are not yet optimized since moving to our current home a few years back
I really want to rip the 78s which are not great sounding in the first place and would like to use some software to clean up the recordings.

Did you cleanse the digital copies? If so, what did you use? Perhaps your records are in much better shape than mine and don't need the cleaning.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bandera

I bought an inexpensive turntable (aside from the B&O I listen on) w/ ripping software and a USB connection to a laptop.
I've transferred many dozens of LPs to MP3 for archival and portable/casual listening.
Next step is to install a WiFi device on all four amps/receivers in the home and network the sound systems to a single source w/ outdoors and garage included to replace the current wireless set-up.
The 70's LP technology sounds best but I'm cooking, gardening, working on the bikes and generally plootering about to music in the background, CD or MP3 is good enough and it's in every room.

very nice bikemig
I few years back I ripped all my CDs to lossless while looking at the best options for a music server, at the time wifi technology was not where it is today and of course no cloud.

In the end, I gave up on the server as I also wanted it for my movies, and technology was not where I could make things work without spending a boat load of dough. Seems like tech has blown past what I needed then, so much to learn....

What software are you using to manage your media? Also do you sell your CDs or movies afterwards? I tend to keep mine, but I know many who rip then sell. There must be a law against that.

Thank you.

I keep my CDs; they're the ultimate hard back up, .

I think digital is the way to go. I use iTunes and rip my music to apple lossless using error correction. I have a good CD player but I can't tell the difference between a CD and music ripped to a lossless format. No digital information is lost when you do that. ITunes is a pretty good front end. I esp. like that you never have to search for that disc.

If you use iTunes, then you can use an apple express router or an apple tv to stream music but you'll want to use the digital out with those devices to get a better sound quality.

A usb dac is simple to set up and there are a lot of good ones out there. I work in front of a computer screen so it is really simple to set up a usb dac and monitors. You don't need to spend a lot of money to get good sound out of a computer.

Insofar as streaming is concerned, I've been impressed with google music. The bit rate is, I believe, 320 kbps. Google allows you to store a very large amount of music for free (20,000 songs). I have around 10,000 songs uploaded so it will be a while before I hit my limit. Amazon and iTunes charge $25 each for storage.

I'm using google play at work to listen to music using an audioengine D1 dac and airmotiv 4 speakers. They're both very reasonably priced (esp. for music gear) and the sound quality is really good. I like having a volume pot on the dac and a headphone amp. The dac is usb powered so it's a very clean system for computer playback:

Did you cleanse the digital copies? If so, what did you use? Perhaps your records are in much better shape than mine and don't need the cleaning.

I've been a bit of a fanatic about proper LP care since Day 1 so no problem w/ old vinyl quality (yet).
The Sony turntable came w/ software that I've never had to use, set it to max quality and let it spin/rip.
As @bikemig notes iTunes is a good library and a backup to a portable hard drive keeps it all safe(ish).

Chromed steel shelving, heavy duty, to support the Boxes of LPs And the above .. Phono in a small cabinet ..

Computer Monitor , sound card 1/8"TRS to 2 RCA can be run as a Line level input to the Mixer, but as its separated by 20 feet ,

I have something more basic flanking the desktop Screen. Had a Powered Mixer to 2 Carvin PM6
[Fan Motor started to sound weak. so I shut it down.]

Have a 2 stereo in , 6 stereo out Audioplex speaker switching box with 6 level pots , to wire the house.. with a Bunch of small speakers
yet to be Re-used.. (wasnt too popular when i Rented.. doing that, holes and all in the landlord's building. )

qciabrat…it’s a 27 which is a little quieter than the 17 and with a little better suction. it only takes one revolution to pick up all the cleaning fluid….much quieter than the 16.5, however the 16.5 is probably one of the best cleaners there is for the price….i just prefer quieter and faster.

I have a number of friends who are also into vinyl and tubes. I’m also surprised by the quality of some of the new vinyl being pressed/released today, especially the 45rpm releases of both new titles and re-issues from music matters, analogue productions etc. There is a lot of new vinyl available on the net (acoustic sounds/music direct etc) too, plus i have a lot of places to buy new/old vinyl where i live…..I’ve learned a lot about pressing plants and mastering engineers/equipment the last couple of years. I think it’s the baby boomer generation that’s driving the current resurgence in vinyl…..that’s good for those in my generation who also like the sound and ritual of vinyl.

Analog/digital it can all be good though....just another learning and experience journey